Worcester Sharks' Al Stalock faces action head-on

Saturday

Nov 3, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Gump Worsley would have been shocked at what Al Stalock did last night. In the first period, the Sharks goalie deliberately let a shot hit him in the mask, which worked well strategically since he made the save and the puck deflected out of play.

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Gump Worsley would have been shocked at what Al Stalock did last night.

In the first period, the Sharks goalie deliberately let a shot hit him in the mask, which worked well strategically since he made the save and the puck deflected out of play. However, the shot damaged Stalock's mask — it had a screw loose — and he had to have it fixed by equipment manager Chris Davidson-Adams.

However, it wasn't an easy repair, and Stalock didn't have a second mask with him. Even if he had wanted to go back in the game without a mask, Stalock couldn't have done it; Rule 11.8 requires goalies to wear masks.

There was no Rule 11.8 when Worsley played in the AHL, as pictures from those years show, and he would never have deliberately let a shot hit his head.

It was not a Lady Byng game, which worked to the Sharks' advantage since they are one of the league's deepest teams in terms of toughness. Frazer McLaren fought Lane MacDermid, Brandon Mashinter battled Bobby Robins, and Sena Acolatse took on Christian Hanson.

Curt Gogol seemed to aggravate the Bruins even more than usual as well.

Worcester won all three decisions in the fights. As usual, Acolatse's bout was the best. Hanson ran Matt Irwin and Acolatse responded. Hanson landed a couple of early punches — that's standard for an Acolatse fight — but the Providence center took the rest of the time.

Forward Mike Banwell has joined Chris Blight on the list of Sharks who had short, but just about perfect, careers.

Worcester released Banwell from his pro tryout and he rejoined Trenton of the ECHL. In three games with Worcester, the defenseman was 0-1-1 and a plus-2 and won his only fight. In 2010-11, Blight got into one game with the Sharks on a PTO and had two assists and was a plus-2. He was released as soon as the game ended.

Banwell will never be an offensive threat, but the Sharks have enough offense along the blue line. From that standpoint, he was a very complementary player and probably will get a chance in the AHL again this season with some team.

The St. John's IceCaps play in Worcester at 7 tonight, and the Sharks will be seeking their first-ever victory over the Newfoundlanders at the DCU Center. Worcester was 0-3-1 against St. John's at home in 2011-12 and was outscored, 14-7.

Taylor Doherty returned to action after having missed five games with a rib injury and Matt Pelech served the final game of his four-game suspension for leaving the bench to fight.

Rookie Daniil Tarasov was a scratch and still has not made his AHL debut. Travis Oleksuk, Jimmy Bonneau and Marek Viedensky were the other scratches while Brodie Reid (shoulder) and Mikael Tam (foot) are injured.

The AHL released its list of monthly award winners and they are:

Springfield's Curtis McElhinney as Goalie of the Month. He was 5-1-0 with a 1.51 goals-against average and two shutouts.

Defenseman Justin Schultz of Oklahoma City is Player of Month. The rookie went 6-6-12 in October for the Barons. And — sounds like socialism — distributing the awards wealth, Houston center Mikael Granlund was the Rookie of the Month, going 3-7-10 and plus-5.

Danny Groulx played in his 500th AHL game, 85 of them coming with the Sharks. His assist in the first period was his 200th point in the AHL, and 84 of them have been recorded for Worcester. … Sharks GM Wayne Thomas is around for the weekend and was joined here by pro scouting director John Ferguson. … Terry Koharski worked his third straight Sharks game, something the AHL rarely schedules. Chris Cozzan was his partner. … Nick Petrecki had an assist for his first point of the season. … Bracken Kearns' second goal had just one assist, to Jon Matsumoto. Worcester's first 22 goals of the season each had two assists.